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"First Officer's Log, Stardate 41986.0. We are awaiting the return of Captain Picard who was summoned to Starbase 718. Meanwhile, our sensors have been monitoring an ancient capsule floating in our vicinity, which appears to be from Earth."

CaptainJean-Luc Picard is attending an emergency conference on Starbase 718 while the bridgecrew is observing an ancient space capsule, apparently from Earth. Data requests permission from CommanderRiker to board the vehicle while waiting for the captain's return. Riker grants him permission but wants him back aboard the Enterprise-D before Picard returns.

Data and Worf beam aboard the capsule and examine the old-style equipment. Worf is momentarily baffled by a door that must be manually opened. Upon entering the vessel's main chamber, the two discover a number of refrigeration pods. The seals on two of them have been broken, and the environment corrupted; these two contain decomposed Human remains. Three pods contain frozen Humans.

When Data is ordered back to the Enterprise-D in preparation for Picard's return, he requests that the frozen people also be brought aboard, as the capsule is seriously damaged.

Upon Picard's return, he immediately orders helmsmanGeordi La Forge to lay in a course that will take them into the Neutral Zone. He explains to the senior officers in the observation lounge that several outposts have been destroyed, and the Enterprise-D is being sent as the only Federation vessel to investigate, as it is the flagship. It is assumed that Romulans are behind the problems, but since the Federation has had no contact with them in a number of years since the Tomed Incident, the situation is very uncertain. Riker and Worf both advise the captain to be prepared to fight, but he is determined to wait and see what the situation truly is before deciding on a aggressive course of action.

Meanwhile, DoctorCrusher has thawed and revived the frozen Humans. All three had been cryogenically frozen in the late twentieth century. Dr. Crusher awakens the woman, who promptly faints at the sight of Worf. "Welcome to the 24th century", Picard remarks to her while she lies unconscious.

The Humans are Clare Raymond, Ralph Offenhouse, and L.Q. "Sonny" Clemonds. As the ship continues toward the Neutral Zone, Riker explains to them what has happened, and they attempt to make sense of their new situation. Offenhouse, in particular, is shocked to learn from Data that the current year is 2364. Offenhouse is very concerned about his financial investments and repeatedly demands to speak to the captain so he can get in touch with his attorney or bank on Earth.

After observing Riker use the room's comm panel, Offenhouse calls Picard, interrupting a meeting in the ready room with the officers involving the upcoming Romulan situation. This forces Picard to visit the survivors, and Offenhouse seizes the opportunity for a face-to-face talk with the captain, demanding contact with his attorney. But the captain tells him that money has become obsolete in this century and his attorney has been dead for four hundred years. Offenhouse stands firm, stating that Humanity must still be as it once was: power-hungry and controlling. Picard retorts that Humans no longer seek such material things; they have grown out of their infancy.

"Captain's Log, supplemental. We have arrived at the edge of the Neutral Zone where we will now have an opportunity to learn firsthand what happened to our distant outposts."

"Get that man off of the bridge!"

When the Enterprise-D arrives at the edge of the Neutral Zone, they find that a number of outposts have been completely obliterated. There is no evidence of conventional weapons or attack. Meanwhile, Offenhouse notices the tension level on the ship has jumped up and decides that he must take matters into his own hands and heads out to look for the captain. Picard orders the ship to yellow alert, though Riker and Worf urge him to go to red alert and battle stations.

A Romulan D'deridex-class vessel appears in front of the Enterprise-D, inside Federation territory, but Picard refuses to fire on it as it de-cloaks. Offenhouse appears on the bridge just at this moment and is ordered off by Riker, but the security officers are distracted by the Romulans and fail to remove him.

The Romulan ship responds to the Enterprise-D hailing them, and the Romulans reveal that their outposts have been destroyed in the same manner as the Federation's. Picard asks who is responsible, and the Romulans fall silent. Offenhouse interjects, "They haven't got a clue! They're hoping you know, but they're too arrogant to ask." Picard proposes an agreement of cooperation as both sides investigate the disappearance of the outposts, and the Romulans agree before heading back toward their own territory, with Tebok stating to Picard that the Romulans "are back." Offenhouse is finally removed from the bridge.

Deanna Troi helps Clare locate one of her living descendants, and Picard makes arrangements for the three Humans to be returned to Earth on the USS Charleston at the nearest starbase. At warp 8, they can make it there in five days. Riker says that it is a shame they can't take the three with them; it's like a visit from the past. Picard tells him that would be a step backward, when they still have so much to do and to learn. The Enterprise-D continues onward.

- Picard, after the newly-revived Clare Raymond fainted at the sight of Worf

"What is that?"
"An android."
"You mean a robot?"
"Actually, there is a distinct difference between an android and a robot..."
"And...and him, the one I saw before with the... head?"
"She means Worf..."
"He's a Klingon – that takes a little more... explanation."

- Clemonds, Riker, Data, Raymond, and Dr. Crusher

"I wanna go to the, um ... the, um... Where would a captain be?"
"Captain Picard is on the main bridge."
"Well, then, take me to the main bridge!"

- Offenhouse and the computer

"The Yankee's right. Let's get the big boy in here!"

- Clemonds, when Offenhouse states he wishes to speak to Picard

"They are the most unusual Humans I have ever encountered."
"Well, from what I've seen of our guests, there's not much to redeem them. Makes one wonder how our species survived the 21st century."

- Data and Riker, discussing Clemonds, Raymond, and Offenhouse

"This is the worst run ship I have ever been on. You should take lessons from the QE2. Now that's an efficient operation."

- Ralph Offenhouse, to Picard

"A lot has changed in the past three hundred years. People are no longer obsessed with the accumulation of things. We've eliminated hunger, want, the need for possessions. We've grown out of our infancy."

- Picard to Ralph Offenhouse

"Captain, these are Romulans. They are without honor. They killed my parents in an attack on Khitomer when they were supposed to be our allies. They believe that Humans and Klingons are a waste of skin!"

Maurice Hurley had something more in mind with this episode. The attacks the Romulans complain about in "The Neutral Zone" dangled as an unresolved plot device for quite some time, but there was a plan: Hurley had meant for this episode to comprise part of a trilogy in which the Borg would be formally introduced. The opening episode of the second season further explored matters, including a possible alliance between the Federation and the Romulan Empire to counter the new threat. Such plans, however, were ruined by the 1988 Writers Guild of America strike. As such, the Borg's introduction had to wait until "Q Who". (Star Trek: The Next Generation Companion)

The premise of this episode shares some similarities to TOS: "Space Seed", as it features the Enterprise encountering an ancient, derelict spacecraft with cryogenically frozen humans from Earth in the 1990s, and then reviving the occupants whose chambers had not failed. (Of course, these occupants prove to be much easier for the crew to deal with, relatively speaking, than Khan Noonien Singh was).

The painting seen in L.Q. Clemonds guest quarters appeared previously in the episode "Symbiosis" and will be featured in several season 2 episodes. This episode marks the only appearance of this painting missing the planet next to the sun.

This episode marks the first time a specific year is mentioned in relation to the setting of a Star Trek series, when Data cites the current year as 2364. This year served as the fixed reference around which subsequent timeline data was placed. Prior to this, Star Trek: The Next Generation had generally been placed in the early 24th century, per Data's line in "Encounter at Farpoint", where he established that he was from the "class of '78."

Like "The Naked Now"'s reference to the USSR earlier in the season, this episode contained a historical prediction which would be proved inaccurate within a few years. While at the time that the episode was made, Sonny Clemonds' belief that his beloved Atlanta Braves are "probably still finding ways to lose" was an accurate reflection of their performance, by the time in the mid-1990s that the cryonics satellite would have been launched, the Braves were in the middle of a fifteen-year run in which they were consistently one of the premier teams in Major League Baseball, winning the World Series in 1995 (defeating the Cleveland Indians, who had been similarly misrepresented in "The Big Goodbye", where the Dixon Hill vendor thought Data was "nuts" when he mentioned that the Indians would stop Joe DiMaggio's hitting streak – they were as bad as the Braves in 1988, but had been one of the better teams in the American League at the time the holonovel takes place). However, while the Braves won fourteen straight division titles between 1991 and 2005, 1995 was their only championship in that span, "finding ways to lose" in the other years.

This is the first episode in which the Borg are mentioned, although they are at this point only an unknown entity which has been destroying starbases.

This episode is the only one in Star Trek referencing the Borg attacking the Romulans. In VOY: "Unity", Commander Chakotay of the starship USS Voyager encounters liberated Borg drones in the Delta Quadrant nearly a decade later. Among them was a former drone named Orum who identified himself as Romulan.

Worf mentions the Romulans having killed his parents during the attack on Khitomer "when they were supposed to be our allies." However, "Reunion" later established that Klingons and Romulans had been blood enemies for decades before that.

Director James L. Conway remembers about this episode considered one of the weaker first season shows, "It was the last episode of the first season and there was a writers' strike underway. I think it was a first draft, and since there was a strike, no one could do any work on it. Gene and the producers couldn't do rewrites, so we had to shoot what we had. If there hadn't been a strike, I think it would have been a better script." (The Official Star Trek: The Next Generation Magazine Vol. 19, pp. 49-50)

Despite the glee fans felt over the return of the Romulans, there was concurrently a sense of unease at the time, over some uncharacteristic statements uttered by the principal characters, which they felt flew in the face of the spirit of Star Trek. These included,

Scene 2: "It's just a piece of space debris. If we weren't sitting here waiting for the captain, we wouldn't have even noticed it. Leave it be. Let nature take its course."

- Riker, contradicting the exploratory nature of the mission, especially from a period of time in Earth's history which had been established as somewhat mired.

Scene 23: "But, Data – they were already dead. I mean... what more could have happened to them? (...)They are alive now, so we have to treat them as living Human beings."

- Picard, contradicting himself, as apparently they were not dead, and expressing a willingness to have left them, without even trying to revive them, as well as showcasing bigotry in the closing remark.

While writer Hurley could have been faulted for this, due to the fact that he was only recently hired, not having any experience with science fiction, Star Trek in particular, whatsoever, that was only partly true. As already indicated by Conway above, most responsible was the writer's strike that intervened and provided little time and opportunity to revise the story outline, as originally submitted, into a teleplay, which Hurley had to do on the fly in one and a half day. (Star Trek: The Next Generation 365, p. 67)